“A time is coming when men will go mad, and when they see someone who is not mad, they will attack him, saying, ‘You are mad; you are not like us.'” ― St. Anthony the Great

Thursday, May 4, 2017

WKRLEM: As free as the wind blows!

So I am in the shower listening to the "Peter Gunn Themes Song" channel on Pandora when an instrumental version of "Born Free" came on the Iphone. Waddayagonna do? Why sing it at the top of your lungs in your fake Andy Williams voice. That's what!

I loved the movie "Born Free." I had read the book when it came out in 1960. I was very excited when the movie came out and went to see it downtown when it came out in the movies. This was the beginning of the environmental phase that we all go through. I mean I am a conservationist, But a Teddy Roosevelt hunting conservationist not a green weenie type. This movie fit right in to that mindset. Along with the "Wonderful World of Disney" and the "Underseas World of Jacques Cousteau" it made us appreciate the animals in the wild and wish them well.

You know the story. George Adamson shot a lion couple and adopted their kids. Sort of like what Hollywood douches like Madonna and Angelina Jolie do with black kids now. They send off two of the lions to a zoo but keep the smallest one Elsa and raise it like a pet. Eventually they set it free to live a nasty brutish live in the bush. Sort of like Madonna letting her adopted child move to Chicago or something. That song just takes me back to that time.

I was thinking about Andy Williams just the other day. He had a variety show back in the day. I used to watch it all the time. He also had a couple of hit songs like "Moon River" that were all over the radio. Yeah it was old fashioned even back then and stuff but you can't help but sing along. They don't have variety shows like that anymore. It is as dead as the Western. Somebody should revive it. I think it can be made pretty cheaply and I bet it would be a lot a fun. A new Carol Burnett or Jackie Gleason or Andy Williams could have mainstream comedy and music acts doing skits and singing popular songs. But there is a problem. There is no one with the talent of Carol Burnett or Jackie Gleason around today. Who are they going to get? Mrs. Potato Head Amy Schumer or Louie CK. Forgetaboutit!

It really took me back to 1966. "BBBBOOOORRRRNNNNN FFFFRRRREEEEEEEEEE!

5 comments:

I just now learned the words were really "little greenback" but there was a printing error on the U.S. version so all subsequent releases retained the "little green bag" wording.

People like the interpretation of little green bag referring to marijuana so that misreading stuck.

It's more nefarious. Grittier. More street. The misinterpretation allows for enhanced street cred. It makes the song cooler.

And yet I love the song without any of that nonsense. I took a superficial reading. Little. Green. Bag. As luggage. A single piece of luggage, this time green. It indicates the young person hasn't much possessions such that it all can fit into a single small piece of luggage. The same piece of luggage that Smalltown Boy used except this time it's been spray-painted green.

Little is shown by holding up an invisible inch.

Green is shown by shaking a G

Small piece of luggage is shown by hand-carrying such a piece of invisible equipment.

And those three signals go together smoothly and rather nicely.

Otherwise it's "Looking back, on the track, for a little greenback."

For greenback specifically you'd have to go, "green + back (a combination that does not makes sense in this language) + money. And that string is NOT smooth nor rather nice. So I'm happy about the historic misreading while rejecting the marijuana interpretation of green bag.

You think this is silly?

This is important. You have to KNOW what you're singing about in order to show it.

Same thing in converse with "Kiss from a Rose." Here, if you don't see cocaine in there then you're not comprehending the song.

Elsa the lion. They were still showing this fairly regularly on tv when I was a kid. Also, I used to watch Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom. Early environmentalism; sensible, minus all the lying and exaggeration. Also, the old guy (Marlon Perkins) commentating from a safe distance while the young guy (Jim?) wrestled with moose, bears, lions, boa constrictors, etc. Funny!